A look at RIM's much-delayed BlackBerry 10

Stagehands prepare for the introduction of the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
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Stagehands prepare for the introduction of the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
/ AP

BlackBerry's employees prepare the launch event for the company's new smartphones in London, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. The first in a new generation of long-awaited BlackBerrys will go on sale in the next week in Canada and the United Kingdom, but won't be released in the U.S. until March.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)— AP

BlackBerry's employees prepare the launch event for the company's new smartphones in London, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. The first in a new generation of long-awaited BlackBerrys will go on sale in the next week in Canada and the United Kingdom, but won't be released in the U.S. until March.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
/ AP

A woman uses a new touchscreen BlackBerry Z10 smartphone, put on display during a launch event for the new phone in London, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)— AP

A man holds the new touchscreen BlackBerry Z10 smartphone, during a launch event for the new phone in London, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
/ AP

Research In Motion Ltd. revealed its first two phones running the new BlackBerry 10 software on Wednesday. The Z10 will come out in the U.K. and Canada within the week, but not in the U.S. until March. It will have a touch-screen keyboard. A model with a physical keyboard, the Q10, will not be available in the U.S. until at least April, further delaying a long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company and its once-pioneering product.

RIM previously announced delays to its upcoming BlackBerry 10 system, which the company considers crucial to its future. The delay means the phones missed the holiday shopping season and come months after the launch of a new iPhone. The delay could make it even harder for RIM to regain market share lost to Apple's iPhone and devices running Google's Android operating software.

Here's a look at developments surrounding the BlackBerry 10 in recent months:

Dec. 6: RIM says "BlackBerry 10" will be the new name for its next-generation system after the company loses a trademark ruling on its previous name, BBX.

Dec. 15: RIM says new phones running BlackBerry 10 won't be out until late 2012, instead of early 2012 as previously expected. The company says the phones will need a highly integrated chipset that won't be available until mid-2012, so the company can now expect the new phones to ship late in the year.

May 1, 2012: RIM unveils a newly designed smartphone prototype powered by BlackBerry 10. The prototype BlackBerry has a touch screen, but no physical keyboard like most BlackBerry models. No update is given on the new system's launch date.

May 2: Company stresses that while the prototype has no physical keyboard, RIM will continue to make some models with one.

June 21: Company says the first BlackBerry device running BlackBerry 10 will not have a physical keyboard, only a touch-screen one. Ones with hard keyboards will eventually be made, but the company declines to say when.

June 28: RIM says it's delaying the launch of BlackBerry 10 yet again, to the first quarter of next year. CEO Thorsten Heins says RIM's top priority is a successful launch of the new BlackBerrys. He adds, "I will not deliver a product to the market that is not ready to meet the needs of our customers. There will be no compromise on this issue."

July 10: At its annual shareholders meeting, Heins asks disgruntled investors for patience as it develops BlackBerry 10. He says the product's quality is more important than rushing out the software, and he argues that some telecom carriers prefer a 2013 launch because next-generation wireless networks will be more widely operational by then.

Aug. 23: RIM says it has begun showing its new BlackBerry smartphones to wireless carriers around the world, but it remains "months and months" away from starting to sell them. The company says feedback from those carriers has been positive, and it will begin to discuss product launches and other business aspects with the carriers soon.